Competitor Analysis

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MS PowerPoint 2007 MS Powerpoint 2008 (Mac) Apple Keynote '09 Google Docs (as of June 2009)
Default UI overview

(the main interface is bolded)

  • a unique interface of tabbed panels (the ribbon), showing the most common options on the default "Home" tab; contains both contextual and static elements, denoted by color and placement
  • the Office button provides access to options usually found under "File" in standard applications
  • the Quick Access toolbar for the user's "favorite" commands
  • inconsistencies in the UI:
    • the Office button has no marks of a button
    • the commonly-used buttons Undo, Redo, and Repeat are inexplicably not found in the ribbon, instead being in the QA toolbar
    • the Help button, found on the right of the ribbon as the only button in the ribbon tab bar
    • the Options and Exit buttons are housed under the Office button at the bottom right unlike the other items in the menu
  • menus
  • a single heterogeneous toolbar with large icons (standard in Mac OS X) holding commonly-used commands
  • "the Toolbox," a palette combining formatting tools, object insertion, animation parameters, a "scrapbook" tool, reference tools (thesaurus, dictionary, etc.), compatibility reports, and a project tool
  • a unique, yet useful "Gallery" containing styles
  • menus
  • a heterogeneous static toolbar with commonly-used commands
  • a small toolbar with contextual commands
  • Inspector, a floating formatting palette providing formatting tools
  • menus
  • a toolbar with static, commonly-used options
Thoughts The interface has been criticized for the deviations in logic listed above, as well as for being too different from its predecessor. [1] [2] [3], but has also been praised for ease of use and browseability [4] Can feel very bloated or outdated UI-wise, as many UI elements can be used for the same task and as the "revolutionary" ribbon from its Windows counterpart is not present, and the suite relies on the old menus and toolbars that have been there since its inception Not all commands are built into the menus, and so the user is forced to look through both the menu bar and the Inspector, which can be very frustrating Very spartan interface, due to lack of features
Scrolling Scrolls through slides, but doesn't show two slides at once Behaves like its Windows counterpart Scrolls within the slide only No scrolling by default (the zoom changes as the window is resized), but, with zoom, one can scroll the slide only
Dragging/editing textboxes
  • Single click to edit
  • Click on border and drag to move the frame
  • No live preview when resizing or moving (just an outline representing the frame)
  • Shows guides
  • Snaps to a small grid when moving (very uncomfortable)
  • Easy, quick rotation with a green button above the frame
Same as its Windows counterpart
  • Double click to edit
  • Click anywhere on the frame and drag to move it; not moveable when editing text
  • Live preview
  • Shows guides
  • Free movement
  • No (obvious) way to rotate the frame
  • Single click to edit
  • Click on border and drag to move the frame
  • No live preview when resizing or moving (just an outline representing the frame)
  • Doesn't show guides
  • Free movement
  • No way to rotate the frame
Lists

Coming soon...

  • Text bulleted by default (in some masters)
  • Inserted and managed through Format > Bullets and Numbering..., the Formatting Pane, or the hidden-by-default formatting toolbar
  • In PowerPoint, two consecutive "enters" creates a line break and continues with the list at the same hierarchical level
  • In Word, however, two consecutive "enters" move the list to the superior level, and when there are no more, end the list
  • Text bulleted by default (in some masters)
  • Inserted and managed through the Inspector (under Text > Bullets)
  • In Keynote, just like in PowerPoint, two consecutive "enters" creates a line break and continues with the list at the same hierarchical level
  • In Pages, however, two consecutive "enters" end the list
  • Text not bulleted by default
  • Inserted and managed through a toolbar button
  • In Google Docs (both the presentation and the document editor), two consecutive "enters" move the list to the superior level, and when there are no more, end the list
Customization

Coming soon...

  • Customizable toolbar and menu items
  • General contains:
    • "Provide feedback with sound to screen elements," "Confirm launching applications in Open and New," "Show Project Gallery at startup," and "Track recently opened documents"
    • How many items to display in Open Recent
    • "Link sounds with file size greater than ..."
    • Movie options
    • Web options
  • View features:
    • "Show vertical ruler," "Ruler units," and "Default view for new presentations"
    • "Slide Show Navigation," "Pop-up menu on CTRL+click," and "End with black slide"
  • Edit includes:
    • "Show Paste Options buttons" and "Use smart cut and paste"
    • "When selecting, automatically select entire word" and "Drag-and-drop text editing"
    • "Maximum number of undos"
  • Save: asks for default format (PPT or PPTX), at which time intervals to save AutoRecover info, whether to save slides as graphic files, and a few other minor adjustments
  • Spelling: traditional spelling options
  • Gallery: minor adjustments, such as appearance and whether to open it by default
  • AutoCorrect
  • Compatibility asks if to check docs for compatibility, and lists issues if available
  • Advanced, a bit of a misnomer, asks where to save files by default and also asks for user information
  • Feedback asks to participate in MS's Customer Experience Improvement Program
  • Customizable static toolbar
  • General
  • Rulers
  • Slideshow
  • Presenter Display
  • Remote
  • Auto-Correction
  • No customization

More to come. Or, if anybody wants to add these topics, go ahead: Installation, customization (shortcuts, appearance, AutoCorrect, colors, etc.), updating, collaboration, inserting tables, Help, adding/removing slides, playing the slide show, audio/video (setting audio to start/stop on slides, embedding and playing back a video), warnings when saving to a format which might render file incorrectly, cropping images, downloading and working with language tools (grammar/spell checking), paste special, and image manipulation. You can also add screenshots (be aware of copyright issues [5] [6], as Apple is particularly known for suing people who post unauthorized screenshots), other presentation applications, comments, links, and other things that could be useful. And feel free to correct me if I'm doing this wrong.

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